J Fam Econ Iss (2010) 31:318–327
DOI 10.1007/s10834-010-9199-y
ORIGINAL PAPER
Self-perceived Age and Attitudes Toward Marketing
of Older Consumers in China
Bin Ying • Rui Yao
Published online: 27 April 2010
Ó The Author(s) 2010. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Abstract Understanding consumer psychological characteristics and their impact on consumer behavior is an
important foundation for business marketing strategies.
Self-perceived age has a great impact on older consumers’
behavior. This article defines the gray market in China,
investigates the factors that affect the differences between
older consumers’ self-perceived age and life age, and
analyzes the influence of self-perceived age on older Chinese consumers’ behavior. In this study, 1,120 older consumers were randomly selected from six cities in China.
Findings show that over half of the respondents feel
younger than their actual life age. Related marketing
strategies are discussed.
Keywords Consumer behavior Life age Older consumer Physiological age Self-perceived age
Self-perceived Age of Older Chinese Consumers
Aging population is an inevitable result of the development
of human society. At present, approximately one-third of
the countries and regions in the world have already become
old-age societies. It is estimated that over 90% of the
countries and regions in the world will develop into old-age
societies by 2050 (United Nations 2002). China turned into
an old-age society in 1999. Ever since then, the elderly
population in China has grown rapidly at an annual rate of
3.2%, which is almost three times the overall population
growth rate (Xie et al. 2007). It is estimated that by 2050,
China will grow to be a highly aging country with around
31% of its population being older people (Abdel-Ghany
2008). A huge gray market already exists in China.
Understanding older consumers’ psychology and their
behavior have significant implications for marketing strategies, and, therefore, have become important tasks for
researchers and professionals in the marketing field.
Consumer psychology and consumer behavior are two
basic research topics in the current marketing field. They
are also the important foundation for business marketing
strategies. Self-perceived age, as opposed to physiological
age and life age, has a greater influence on older consumers’ behavior. In China, it is generally believed that the
self-perceived age of senior citizens is younger than their
physiological age and their life age. However, empirical
research is needed to study the actual relationship between
these ages and find whether self-perceived age could affect
older Chinese consumers’ behavior and the effectiveness of
business marketing strategies.
Age and Its Measures
B. Ying
Business Administration School, Zhongnan University
of Economics and Law, Wuhan 430060, Hubei Province,
People’s Republic of China
e-mail: yingbincn@yahoo.com
R. Yao (&)
Personal Financial Planning Department, University of Missouri,
239B Stanley Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
e-mail: yaor@missouri.edu
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Age is a physical condition and, at the same time, a psychological condition (Sherman and Schiffman 1991). There
is no generally accepted and explicit term to describe and
measure the psychological condition. Kastenbaum et al.
(1972) suggested four dimensions of this psychological
condition: the age a person feels, the age a person thinks
he/she looks, the age a person perceives him/herself to act,
and the age a person perceives to be reflective of his/her
J Fam Econ Iss (2010) 31:318–327
interests. Many similar concepts and terms have been used
in previous literature. Barak and Schiffman (1981) and
Underhill and Cadwell (1983) defined cognitive age as the
arithmetic average of the above four dimensions of ages.
Sherman and Schiffman (1991) stated that self-perceived
age indicates how old an individual feels he/she is. Due to
the complicated computation of cognitive age, most
research adopted the term self-perceived age, which is,
therefore, the term used in this study.
Physiological age and life age measure people’s physical
condition. It is important to note that these terms are two
different concepts. Life age is the measure of one’s natural
age, which is the time that has been elapsed since an individual was born; while physiological age is determined
based on an individual’s physical well-being that is reflected by the function of such individual’s cells and organs.
Life age does not necessary correctly reflect an individual’s
physical function, psychological status, or social ability due
to individual differences in genes, environment, illness,
nutrition, and sports activities. Generally, individuals know
their life age but have difficulty understand their physiological age, which requires technology and trained professionals to measure accurately. Most studies employed the
life age in the analyzing consumer behavior due to the
simplicity to obtain (Borra and Palma 2009; Kim and Kim
2010). In this study, respondents were asked to provide their
life age and report their self-perceived age.
Gap Between Self-perceived Age and Life Age
Past research has consistently found that adults tend to feel
younger than their life age (Barak and Stern 1986; Goldsmith and Heiens 1992; Montepare and Zebrowitz 1998;
Westerhof et al. 2003). Research demonstrates that, in most
situations, people older than age 50 tend to have a selfperceived age that is 10 to 15 years younger than their life
age (Tréguer 2002). The reason of this discrepancy is that
people feel more comfortable this way and can function
better with their current skills, physical strength and mental
ability. In 1999, a French IFOP research discovered that
45% of older people of age 60 and above felt that they were
younger than 50 years old (Tréguer 2002). The majority of
older people had a self-perceived age that was about
10 years younger than their life age. Some well-educated
older people even felt themselves to be 30 years younger
than their life age (Tréguer 2002). In 2000, Shiseido, a
famous Japanese cosmetics group, studied the difference
between the life age and the perceived age of older women
of age 50 and above. They found that on average, those
between 60 and 64 year old women perceived themselves
to be around 52.7 years old, a 9.1 years difference between
their life age and their perceived age. Their research results
also showed that women between 65 and 70 year old felt
319
themselves to be about 57.9 years old, an 8.9 years difference between their life age and their perceived age
(Tréguer 2002).
In typical western culture, old age is viewed negatively
as it has been linked to the decline of social status (Fry
1996). On the contrary, in Chinese culture, old age is traditionally associated with being wise and respectful.
Nonetheless, Chinese people still prefer looking younger
than they actually are. Older Chinese people always say, ‘‘I
feel younger and younger.’’ This implies that their selfperceived age is younger than their life age. In Chinese
culture, feeling young is the key to a healthy and positive
attitude toward life and longevity (Xu 2006). Results from
a recent national survey on older persons showed that the
self-perceived age of older people has declined (Gui 2006).
In the survey, the average age of the respondents was 60.5
and their self-perceived ages were between 29 and 30.
What factors affected such a big difference between selfperceived age and life age is worth exploring, given its
potential benefits to researchers and professionals in the
marketing field.
There exist two major ways to define the gray market:
(1) the market that are made of people of life age 50 and
above; (2) the market that are made of people of life age 55
and above. The majority of the previous research adopts
the first definition (e.g. Beck 1996; Burt and Gabbot 1995;
Kang and Ridgway 1996; Mazur 1993; Mitchell 1996;
Semon 1995; Trappey and Lai 1997; Weaver 1996), which
is, therefore, the definition used in this research.
Benefits of Understanding Self-perceived Age
Understanding factors that affect having a younger selfperceived age than life age has great potential to impact
marketing strategies targeted to the enormous gray market
in China.
Better Understand Consumer Behavior of the Elderly
Perception of the concept ‘‘old age’’ may change as people
age. Many people of age 60 and above would not want to
admit that they have joined the ‘‘old age’’ club. Many of
them feel 10 years younger than they actually are (Brown
1986). Therefore, it is important to understand that investigation of actual life age may not be the best way to
understand consumption demand.
Past research showed that older consumers are often
consistent with younger consumers in terms of their perceptions and behaviors related to age (Barak and Schiffman
1981; Underhill and Cadwell 1983). The phenomenon of
having a self-perceived age younger than one’s life age
exists in both male and female consumer groups (Barak and
Rahtz 1989). Sherman et al. (1988) concluded that
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generally, those who have a younger self-perceived age
than life age are more satisfied with life. Self-perceived age
is also closely related to consumer behavior. Older women
who feel younger are usually more confident and more
interested in fashion. They are more work-oriented instead
of family-oriented and are more likely to participate in
activities related to entertainment and culture. These
women tend to care more about their personal image, which
affects both their attitude toward clothing and their apparel
purchasing behavior (Wilkes 1992). In order to understand
older consumers, researchers must thoroughly understand
factors that influence their self-perceived age and the relationship between their self-perceived age and their value
system, lifestyle and attitudes toward marketing activities.
Build More Accurate Marketing Positions
It has become more and more important for marketing
professionals to understand older consumers’ self-perceived age. Many senior consumers do not wish to be
described as the disadvantaged group who cannot effectively take care of themselves or make rational consumption decisions (Mason and Smith 1977). In the literature,
the older-consumer market (formed by consumers of 50
and above) has been described as being complex and
unpredictable (Anon 1992; Mitchell 1983). These negative
impressions have long hindered the development of marketing in the older consumer market. Recently, more and
more older consumers feel younger than they actually are
and consider the expression ‘‘elderly’’ to be an inappropriate description of themselves. In response to this trend,
some marketing professionals have started to revisit their
understanding of the gray market (Andrews and Mckeever
1990; Anon 1991; Mazur 1993).
Those products that were often targeted to ‘‘senior
consumers’’ in the past are being rejected by older consumers now. Even soft expressions such as ‘‘the golden
age’’ and ‘‘the mature market’’ have all encountered criticism from older consumers (Mitchell 1996). Ying and Yao
(2006) found that older consumers had similar consumption needs as younger adults. Therefore, treating those
consumers with a younger self-perceived age the same way
as younger consumers may be more beneficial for businesses. It was discovered in some literature that older
consumers do not like to be described as being ‘‘old’’ and
‘‘slow’’ in advertisements. This does not mean that businesses should use young people to be the spokesman in all
advertisements. On the contrary, older consumers welcome
advertisements that feature ‘‘healthy’’ and ‘‘vigorous’’
consumers of older ages (Carrigan and Szmigin 1998).
Marketing professionals must thoroughly understand older
consumers before they can effectively select a target
market (Goodhead 1991; Miller 1991).
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J Fam Econ Iss (2010) 31:318–327
Factors that Influence Self-perceived Age
In previous research, self-perceived age has been found to
be positively correlated with life age (Barak and Rahtz
1989; Wilkes 1992) and negatively related to being married
(Barak and Rahtz 1989; Wilkes 1992) and having higher
income (Barak and Rahtz 1989; Wilkes 1992). Westerhof
et al. (2003) concluded that older adults tended to have a
larger discrepancy between their self-perceived age and
their life age than younger individuals (Barak and Stern
1986; Goldsmith and Heiens 1992; Montepare and Lachman 1989). Past research was not consistent in their findings on the effect of gender on self-perceived age. Most
studies found that males and females did not differ significantly in their self-perceived age (Barak and Rahtz
1989; Henderson et al. 1995). However, Montepare and
Lachman (1989) found that females tend to have a younger
self-perceived age than males. The inconsistency also
exists in the effect of work force participation on selfperceived age. Barak and Rahtz (1989) found that not
being in the work force had a positive effect on self-perceived age; while Wilkes (1992) found that the relationship
was not statistically significant.
The Present Study
The majority of past research on self-perceived age in
China was on the general public. This study is the first
empirical research in China that focuses on self-perceived
age of older consumers. Traditionally, it was believed
that older Chinese consumers were conservative in their
value system and lifestyle. Recently, some research found
that some older consumers in China started to be more
open than before. This study investigates the above two
characteristics of older consumers and their relationship
with self-perceived age. This study also contributes to the
literature by examining the differences in self-perceived
age and life age, factors that impact the self-perceived
age of older Chinese consumers, and implications for
marketing professionals on expanding the gray market in
China.
Methodology
In order to better understand the gray market in China and
help businesses to find a more reasonable position in this
particular market, this study investigates the self-perceived
age of older Chinese consumers. Factors related to older
consumers’ likelihood of having a younger self-perceived
age are identified and implications to businesses regarding
marketing strategies for older Chinese consumers are
discussed.
J Fam Econ Iss (2010) 31:318–327
Questionnaire Design
There are four major sections in the questionnaire: older
consumers’ self-perceived age and life age, older consumers’ value system and lifestyle, older consumers’ attitude toward marketing activities, and demographic and
economic background of older consumers.
Older Consumers’ Self-perceived Age and Life Age
Following the self-perceived age definition by Sherman
and Schiffman (1991), i.e. the age that an individual feels
he/she is, the question related to self-perceived age in the
questionnaire was ‘‘You stated that your life age was 50.
Please indicate, which one of the following age categories
best describes the age that you feel you are of? Below 30;
30 to 39; 40 to 49; 50 to 59; 60 to 69; 70 and above; or
don’t know.’’
Older Consumers’ Value System and Lifestyle
Due to enormous historical, social, and cultural differences,
Chinese consumers’ value system and lifestyle are significantly different from that of western consumers. Therefore, western value system and lifestyle cannot be adopted
to study Chinese consumers. Harmony and balance
between nature, human, and society were the traditional
values (Li 1998). Currently, China is experiencing a transition period when diversified social values coexist such as
those that are traditional and modern, advanced and
underdeveloped, eastern and western (Liu and Li 1994).
Based on previous literature, the authors propose two
trends in older Chinese consumers value system: first, the
traditional and conservative value system, mainly including
diligent, thrift, professional, impartial, humble, obedient,
and restraining values; second, the modern and open value
system, mainly including individualistic, multiplex, competitive, socially responsible, hard-working, successful,
welcoming changes, fashionable, and valuing life more
than work values. The following are measures of the two
value systems designed by the authors after examining and
summarizing previous research. A pilot study and tests was
conducted to examine the validity and reliability of the
instruments. The reliability estimates of the individual
items in the value and lifestyle scale were above 0.70,
indicating acceptable reliability (Nunnally 1978). The
Cronbach’s alpha for the scale was 0.82, an indication of a
good reliability of the scale. To conduct the concurrent
validity test, the correlation between each of the 28 items in
the value system and lifestyle scale with similar measures
used in previous research was tested. The correlation
coefficients were all above 0.50, therefore, these items are
considered valid.
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The traditional and conservative value system and lifestyle items are: (1) I believe we should be diligent and thrift;
(2) The boss is always right; (3) When they grow up,
children should financially support their parents; (4) I find it
unbelievable to spend a lot of money on entertainment; (5) I
usually spend lots of money on my spouse and child but
seldom buy anything for myself; (6) I seldom spend money
on myself but save money for my offspring; (7) I care what
others think of me; (8) I hope to be accepted by the society;
(9) I believe we should work hard whether we like the job or
not; 10) I believe we should treat others well; (11) I like to
live in an extended family; 12) I cannot stand things that I
cannot accept; (13) I do not praise myself in front of others;
(14) I believe we should not spend money without a plan
and should save money for emergencies.
The modern and open value system and lifestyle items
are: (1) I like to try new things; (2) I follow the latest trend
and fashion; (3) I am more capable than most others; 4) I
believe enjoying life is more important than working; (5) I
long for excitement; 6) I will not buy anything that are not
useful to me even if they are very cheap; (7) I like to be the
leader in a team; (8) I like a life that is full of changes; (9) I
like to do things the way I like; (10) I like freedom and
independency; (11) I will buy things I like even if I have to
borrow money to buy them; (12) I did not have money
when I was young; now that I have some money, I should
spend it when I need to; (13) I am not as young as before so
I believe I should enjoy life when I can; (14) I am more
fashionable than more others.
The traditional and modern value systems and lifestyles
only reflect the changes in consumer’s value system and
lifestyle due to the changes in the society. These changes
are not treated as being positive or negative in this study.
‘‘Traditional’’ does not mean out-dated or bad and, similarly, ‘‘modern’’ does not mean appropriate or good.
Older Consumers’ Attitude Toward Marketing Activities
In order to examine different older consumers’ attitude
toward marketing activities, a measure with five dimensions (designed by Moschis 1992) was used. These five
dimensions include older consumer’s attitude toward: (1)
product strategies; (2) product satisfaction; (3) sales promotions; (4) pricing strategies; and (5) channel strategies.
Respondents were asked to rate on a 5-point scale, with 1
being totally disagree and 5 being totally agree.
Demographic and Economic Characteristics of Older
Consumers
These characteristics include (1) gender; (2) age; (3) marriage status; (4) employment status; (5) education level; (6)
income level; and (7) household size.
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Sample Selection
A total of six cities were selected to draw sample from.
These cities are Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Shenzhen,
Kunming, and Jiangmen. Beijing is located in the north of
China, which is the political center. Shanghai is located in
the east of China, which is the economic center. Wuhan is
located in the center of China, which is an in-land city with
a long history. Shenzhen and Jiangmen are relatively newly
established cities that are located in the south of China,
which are along the coast and close to Hong Kong and
Macao. Kunming is located in the west of China, which is
comparatively underdeveloped. Jiangmen is a small city,
Kunming is a middle-sized city, and others are large cities.
These six cities represent the gray market in China and, at
the same time, have differences among themselves.
Questionnaires were handed out to the respondents to
complete. Initial instructions were given to respondents on
how to complete the questionnaire. Survey interviewers
assisted participants by reading the questions to those who
could not mark their answers due to health problems or educational barriers. Participants were required to complete the
survey on-site and hand it to the interviewer upon completion.
Survey respondents were randomly selected in each city.
In Wuhan and Jiangmen, 240 respondents were selected and
160 respondents were selected in all other cities. In each city,
the number of respondents in each district was determined
according to the size of local population. For example, Wuhan
has seven districts. Five to seven sample collection blocks in
each district was selected according to the size of local population. The sample was drawn from a total number of 40
blocks with six samples selected from each block. Therefore,
the total sample size from Wuhan was 240. The sample
selection blocks were residential buildings, elderly homes,
universities for older people and parks. Contact information
of older persons in residential buildings, elderly homes and
universities was obtained from their administration offices.
Information slips were mixed and randomly drawn.
Respondents in the parks were irregularly stopped until the
number of respondents reached the desired level. Each
selected older person had to be 50 years or older and had to
have lived in the city for three consecutive years or more,
otherwise another respondent would be randomly chosen to
replace the person who did not meet the above criteria.
The survey was conducted between October and
November 2004. Survey interviewers were sophomore and
junior marketing students in the Business School at
Zhongnan University of Economics and Law. They completed a total of 3-h’s training on survey interviewing
before they conducted the survey.
Before each interview, the interviewer was required to
introduce him/herself and let the respondent know that this
was a non-business related academic research and assure
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them of the confidentiality of the study. After receiving the
completed questionnaire, the interviewer was required to
quickly scan the answers and ask the respondent to answer
the unanswered questions, if any. Each survey took
between 10 to 25 min to complete.
From the past experience of data collection in China,
respondents are more likely to respond to questions that
provide categories of choices than open-ended questions.
Therefore, all variables in the study were categorical. The
total number of questionnaires distributed for the purpose
of this study was 1,120. A total of 916 valid questionnaires
were received, making the response rate of 81.79%.
Method of Analysis
Cross-tabulations were conducted to observe the relationships between self-perceived age and life age, self-perceived age and lifestyle, and self-perceived age and attitude
toward marketing activities. Two-sample t-tests were
conducted to investigate the mean differences in attitude
toward marketing activities for those who perceived
themselves to be younger than 50 and those with a selfperceived age of 50 or older. A logistic regression was
performed to identify factors that influence the likelihood
of having a younger self-perceived age.
Results
Sample Characteristics
Among the 916 older respondents who were 50 years or
older, most respondents (51.42%) were between 50 and
59 years old; 33.07% were in their 60s; and 15.50% were
70 years or older (Table 1). Most respondents were males
(58.41%), married (87.34%), and not working (58.30%).
About two-fifths (39.41%) of the total respondents had a
less than high school education; 31.00% completed high
school or its equivalent level of education; 13.32% had
some college; 14.30% had a Bachelor’s degree or obtained
higher education. The median household size was three.
About one-third of the respondents lived in a one- or twoperson household; 47.38% of them lived in a household
with three or four people; 18.45% lived in larger households with five or more members. As shown in Table 1,
median respondent individual income was between ¥800
and ¥1,499 per month and median monthly household
income was between ¥2,000 and ¥3,999.
Self-perceived Age and Life Age
The results showed that over one-third of the respondents
(34.50%) had a self-perceived age younger than 50 years;
J Fam Econ Iss (2010) 31:318–327
323
Table 1 Respondent characteristics
Table 2 Self-perceived age and life age of older Chinese consumers
Characteristic
No. of respondent
%
Self-perceived age
Life age
50–59
Self-perceived age
\40
118
12.88
40–49
198
21.62
50–59
307
33.52
60–69
196
21.4
C70
69
7.53
Don’t know
28
3.06
Life age
50–59
471
51.42
60–69
303
33.07
C70
Gender
142
15.5
Male
535
58.41
Female
381
41.59
Married
800
87.34
Unmarried
116
12.66
Working
382
41.7
Not working
534
58.3
Less than high school
361
39.41
High school
284
31
Some college
122
13.32
Bachelor’s degree or above
149
16.27
Less than ¥800
¥800–1,499
273
277
29.8
30.24
¥1,500–2,999
240
26.2
¥3,000 or above
126
13.75
Less than ¥2,000
296
32.32
¥2,000–3,999
288
31.45
¥4,000–5,999
168
18.34
¥6,000 or above
164
17.9
Marital status
Employment status
Education
Respondent monthly income
Household monthly income
Household size
1
53
5.79
2
260
28.38
3
276
30.13
4
158
17.25
C5
169
18.45
Note: Total sample size = 916
and another one-third (33.52%) perceived themselves to be
in their 50s. Table 2 showed that the majority of respondents (51.79%) had a younger self-perceived age than their
life age, which is consistent with previous research such as
Brown (1986), Barak and Rahtz (1989), and Tréguer
No.
60–69
%
No.
C70
%
No.
%
\30
15
1.69
4
0.45
4
0.45
30–39
72
8.11
14
1.57
9
1.01
40–49
50–59
158
201
17.79
22.63
36
88
4.05
9.91
4
18
.45
2.03
60–69
10
1.12
148
16.67
38
4.28
0
0.00
6
0.68
63
7.10
C70
Note: Total sample size = 888 without those who responded ‘‘Don’t
know’’ to the self-perceived age question
(2002). The results indicated a large gap between the selfperceived age and the life age of older Chinese consumers.
Of the respondents perceived themselves to be younger
than their life age, about one-fifth (19.81%) perceived
themselves to be at least 10 years younger than their life
age (Table 2); 5.62% of them had a self-perceived age that
was at least 20 years younger than their life age; some even
perceived themselves to be at least 30 years younger than
they actually were. It is also worth noticing that 16 (1.80%)
perceived themselves to be older than they actually were
and 28 (3.06%) chose the answer ‘‘Don’t know.’’
Predictors of a Younger Self-perceived Age
Gender, employment status, household monthly income,
and respondent monthly income had a significant effect on
the likelihood of perceiving an age that is younger than
own life age (Table 3). Controlling for other factors, males
were only 71.74% as likely as females to have a younger
self-perceived age than their actual life age. Respondents
who were employed at the time of the interview were 1.42
times as likely as their otherwise similar non-working
counterparts to have a younger self-perceived age.
Household and individual monthly income level also had a
significant positive impact on the self-perceived age of
older Chinese consumers.
Self-perceived Age and Older Consumers’ Value
System and Attitudes
Table 4 showed that older consumers who perceived
themselves to be under 50 years old are more open-minded
regarding their values and lifestyles. Compared to older
consumers with a self-perceived age older than 50, those
with a younger self-perceived age were 1.42 times more
likely to be open-minded (24.48 and 34.82%, respectively).
Among those with a self-perceived age over 50 years,
75.52% showed a conservative value system and lifestyle,
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Table 3 Logistic analysis of
the likelihood of a younger selfperceived age
Parameter
Coefficient
Standard error
Intercept
-0.4317
0.3415
Age 50–59
0.0010
0.1759
1.0010
Age C70
0.2761
0.2160
1.3180
Male
-0.3321*
0.1468
0.7174
Married
-0.0889
0.2201
0.9149
Employed
0.3536*
Less than high school
-0.1099
-0.1115
0.2301
0.8945
-0.3082
0.2433
0.7348
0.0199
1.0439
0.0430*
0.1050**
Household size
-0.0759
Concordance
62.9%
Chi-square test of the likelihood ratio
47.5081 \ 0.0001
Table 4 Value system and lifestyle of older consumers
Value system Self-perceived age B50
%
No. of
respondents
65.19 432
Open
110
34.82 140
Total
316
100
0.0381
1.1107
0.0626
0.9269
Discussion and Implications
Self-perceived age [50
Conservative 206
572
%
75.52
24.48
100
while the percentage of those with a self-perceived age
younger than 50 was 65.19%.
Table 5 presents the mean differences in attitude toward
marketing activities for those with a self-perceived age
younger than 50 and 50 or above. Compared to consumers
with an older self-perceived age, those who perceived
themselves to be under 50 years old were more likely to try
new products, buy name brand products, be attracted by
sales strategies such as advertisements, discounts, and
window displays. They tend to be more likely to welcome
help from sales persons, accept the bank card payment
method, and be willing to spend more for quality and
convenience. These two groups did not show a big difference in their attitude toward product satisfaction.
Self-perceived Age and Positioning the Gray Market
Previous research found that older consumers, especially
those with a younger self-perceived age, do not like to be
described as being old and slow. Table 6 showed that most
older consumers do not like to name the products that were
targeted to them to be ‘‘old age products’’. They also do not
like other names such as ‘‘mature age products’’, ‘‘silverhair products’’ and ‘‘silver products’’.
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1.4242
0.8959
Some college
Respondent monthly income
No. of
respondents
0.1704
0.1773
Bachelor’s degree or higher
Household monthly income
Note: * p \ 0.05, ** p \ 0.01
Odds ratio
The negative old, slow and stubborn image of older consumers has long hindered the development of the gray
market. It was found in the study that over one-third of
older Chinese consumers perceived themselves to be
younger than 50 years. Over half of the respondents felt
younger than their actual life age. Only very few had a selfperceived age that was older than their life age. Therefore,
marketing professionals with the old belief that ‘‘the old
man decays’’ are challenged to re-evaluate and reposition
the gray market. Due to the social development and technology advancement, people live longer today. The ‘‘midlife’’ and ‘‘middle-age’’ concepts may be shifted: they were
used to describe those in their 30s and now 50s may be the
new 30s. Moreover, there have been changes in the labor
market. People work longer now than before and the ‘‘full
retirement age’’ defined by Social Security is delayed to 67
from the previous 65 in the U.S. Marketing professionals
should recognize the changes in the labor market and the
shift in age perceptions and develop appropriate products
and relevant marketing strategies to better target the older
consumers group.
As shown by the results of this study, some older consumers maintain a younger self-perceived age than their
life age. Self-perceived age, compared to life age, has a
more profound impact on consumer behavior. This study
identified factors that have an effect on perceiving a
younger age than life age. Future research should make a
step further to investigate the size of the gap between selfperceived age and life age and better help marketing professionals to target the appropriate group of older
consumers.
There is no generally accepted product name for older
consumers (Table 6). In order to prevent negative reaction
J Fam Econ Iss (2010) 31:318–327
325
Table 5 Self-perceived age and attitude toward marketing activities
B50
[50
p-Value
1. I like to try new products
3.09
2.73
***
2. I will always use the brands that I like
3.44
3.32
3. I like to purchase name brands
2.87
2.52
4. I seldom pay attention to product quality guarantee
2.71
2.65
5. I won’t buy new products unless people that I know have confirmed that they are OK.
3.43
3.39
Attitude toward marketing activities
Attitude toward product strategies
***
Attitude toward product satisfaction
6. If I am not satisfied with a product, I usually will inform relatives and friends.
3.86
3.89
7. If I like a product, I usually will recommend it to relatives and friends.
3.84
3.77
8. I do not trust advertisements.
9. I have the experience of buying a product because I liked its advertisement.
3.40
2.74
3.51
2.45
10. Before I try a free sample, I usually would not buy new food products.
3.19
3.10
11. I often shop in a store because I was attracted by its window display.
2.76
2.23
***
***
Attitude toward sales strategies
**
12. Discount activities often induce me to buy things I do not plan to buy.
2.74
2.34
13. I dislike coupons distributed by stores because they are troublesome.
They are usually the results of increased prices.
3.50
3.43
14. I use coupons whenever I can.
3.34
3.11
15. Businesses won’t treat me like a friend; they only want my money.
3.66
3.73
3.74
3.18
17. I often visit stores and malls.
18. I like to shop where I usually shop.
2.81
3.58
2.80
3.59
19. I like to shop in bigger stores rather than smaller ones.
3.45
3.29
20. I don’t mind the price to be a little higher if the store is close by where I live.
3.24
2.85
***
21. I frequently buy things through the mail order.
2.16
1.79
***
22. I like to be helped by sales persons when I shop.
2.91
2.56
***
23. I wish all stores had sales consultants.
3.13
2.81
***
24. I wish there were more checkouts in all stores that would accept credit cards.
3.24
2.74
***
25. When shopping, I am more likely to pay cash than use bank cards.
3.45
3.68
**
*
Attitude toward pricing strategies
16. I am willing to spend more money for higher quality.
***
Attitude toward channel strategies
26. I like to interact with sales people, service people and other consumers.
3.01
2.72
***
27. I had bad experiences with sales professionals and service people.
2.89
2.61
**
Note: * p \ 0.05, ** p \ 0.01, *** p \ 0.001
Table 6 Product names that are accepted by older Chinese
consumers
Product name
No. of respondents
%
Mid-to-old-age products
334
36.46
Old-age products
112
12.23
Mature products
78
8.52
Silver products
78
8.52
Silver-hair products
17
1.86
None of the above
297
32.42
Note: The question was, ‘‘If a business is developing a product for
you, which of the following names would you prefer to name the
products?’’
of older consumers, businesses should avoid using a particular phrase for products that indicate ‘‘old age’’. Instead,
they should use words that give older consumers the image
of being ‘‘healthy, energetic and young inside’’. Table 6
well demonstrated the fact that older consumers do not like
any of the product names that indicate their old age.
Because many older consumers do not wish to be considered old, in advertisement and sales promotions that target
this group of people, businesses should avoid using product
names that signify the age of older consumers. Older
consumers with a younger self-perceived age than life age
have a value system and lifestyle that is more open than
those with a same or older self-perceived age. Therefore,
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326
consumers who feel younger are more likely to accept new
things and behave more like middle-aged consumers. Since
the majority of older consumers perceive themselves to be
younger than they actually are, businesses should not treat
them substantially differently from middle-aged consumers
in their marketing and sales strategies. When designing
marketing strategies for the gray market, businesses should
try to meet the special consumption needs of older consumers by developing new products and services that satisfy older consumers’ need to feel young.
Those older consumers who have a younger self-perceived age have demonstrated different characteristics
from traditional older consumers in their consumption
behavior. These consumers are more willing to accept new
products, less sensitive to prices, and more willing to spend
money on themselves. Therefore, these consumers are
more important to businesses in that they have more
potential to become loyal customers and bring more profit
to businesses. They can also have impact on other older
consumers, which can result in more sales for businesses.
This study did not include consumers in rural areas,
where the majority of Chinese population live. The
potential of the rural gray market development is huge.
Future research should study the impact of self-perceived
age of rural older consumers on their consumption
behavior.
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
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Author Biographies
Bin Ying is an Associate Professor of marketing and the Head of the
Marketing Group at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in
China. Dr. Ying received his Doctoral degree in Management from
Zhongnan University of Economics and Law. He was a visiting
scholar in Berlin, Germany and guest researcher at Lund University,
Sweden. He has published three books and about 30 journal articles in
marketing and consumer behavior. His recent research areas are gray
marketing, Chinese consumer behavior and Chinese local marketing.
Rui Yao Ph.D., CFPÒ is an Assistant Professor in the Personal
Financial Planning Department at the University of Missouri. Dr. Yao
received her doctoral degree from The Ohio State University. Her
research interests include financial risk tolerance, savings behavior
and motives, retirement preparation, debt management, and household consumption patterns. Her research received the best paper
award from the CFP Board. Dr. Yao is a member of the research team
on the first national survey of Chinese Consumer Finance and Investor
Education.
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